The Smith Center at 50: A Legacy of Community and Competition
The Smith Center at 50: A Legacy of Community and Competition
From buzzer-beating basketball games to high-energy volleyball matches and global speakers, the Charles E. Smith Center has brought generations of fans, students and alumni together under one roof.
By Nick Erickson
In late 1973, Bob Tallent, B.S. ’71, and the rest of the George Washington University men’s basketball coaching staff would spend nearly all their lunch hours grabbing a sandwich from GW Delicatessen and gazing across the street at the majestic site of—drumroll—a hole.
Tallent, a GW Athletics Hall of Famer who spent one magical year playing for the Buff and Blue in 1967, was often tasked with showing recruits around Foggy Bottom. He would bring them to the Tin Tabernacle on University Yard, the practice home of GW basketball for decades, where the walls were simultaneously the out-of-bounds lines and its tin roof turned the facility into a sauna in the D.C. summertime.
But in the years leading up to 1975, he would bring those high school prospects to the hole and promise them that by the time they graduated, they would be playing their home games at the brand-new arena spanning an entire city block.
On Dec. 6, 1975, the Charles E. Smith Center, named after the nationally renowned real estate developer, GW honorary degree recipient and trustee who provided the initial gift to build the facility, opened its doors.
“It was like heaven,” said Tallent, who served as the head men’s basketball coach from 1975 to 1981 and roamed the sidelines during GW’s first-ever game at the Smith Center, when the team took third-ranked Wake Forest down to the wire in a sold-out, sparkling new gymnasium.
“It was first-class—handball, racquetball, squash courts, all busy all the time,” he said. “It gave us one of the best home court advantages around.”
The Smith Center, however, has always been more than a sports venue. The building, celebrating its 50th anniversary this academic year, bookends students’ journeys at the university, beginning with Convocation for first-year and new transfer students and ending with school commencement ceremonies and presidential investitures.
It has also hosted presidents and world leaders, comedians, musicians and been the site of countless events and activities enhancing student life on campus. It has played host to NCAA tournament games, upsets that have led to court stormings and been the home base for so many athletes wearing the Buff and Blue. It hosts the Revolutionaries’ men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, gymnastics, volleyball and water polo teams.
Intimate but mighty
In 1993, a rising phenom was in the midst of an All-American season at Kecoughtan High School in Hampton, Virginia, where she and her family moved from the U.S. Virgin Islands after Hurricane Hugo had displaced them four years earlier.
Tajama (Abraham) Ngongba, B.A. ’96, was heavily recruited, but thanks to a family connection in the D.C. area, she visited GW. Ngongba went to a game at the Smith Center and was enamored with the building’s intimacy.
“I liked the fact that the crowd was right on top of you, the band was right there, the cheerleaders were right there,” said Ngongba, who went on to spearhead one of the greatest runs by any athletic team in the university’s 200-plus year history.
Ngongba played in a total of six NCAA tournament games at the Smith Center. And she and her teammates were a perfect 6-0 in those games, including an overtime win against Drake that sent the team to the women’s program’s first-ever Sweet 16, aided by a late full-court pressure defense that allowed GW to climb back from a double-digit deficit.
“The fans just got louder and louder,” she said. “You could almost feel them coming onto the floor with us. At first, they were sitting, clapping, but then they were on their feet. The energy was incredible.”
From 1993 to 1997, Ngongba led GW to a 103–27 record, four straight NCAA tournament appearances and a trip to the 1997 Elite Eight. She remains the school’s all-time leader in points (2,134), rebounds (970), blocks and games played.
At that same time, another GW athlete who called the Smith Center home, volleyball legend Svetlana Vtyurina, B.B.A. '96, M.B.A. '98, was rewriting record books herself. And against Duquesne on Nov. 11, 1995, the Smith Center served as the setting for the crème de la crème of those records. That night, Vtyurina recorded her 2,933rd career kill, surpassing the all-time NCAA Division I career mark.
“It was great because friends came, people from different teams came—it was just an amazing atmosphere,” said Vtyurina, whose teams went 118-28 with three trips to the NCAA tournament during her four years at GW. “I was lucky I actually got to do it at home because it could’ve been anywhere else.”
Her career kill total of 3,043 and single-game tally of 56 in a match at Georgetown on Sept. 14, 1995, are NCAA Division I records that still stand today.
Vtyurina’s record-setting night bookended a memorable 1995 calendar year at the Smith Center. In February, the No. 1-ranked Massachusetts men’s basketball team coached by a young John Calipari marched into a highly anticipated showdown at the Smith Center.
“Anytime you’re playing the No. 1 team—especially at home—there’s a special buzz,” said Bob Chernak, Ed.D. ’97, long-time GW administrator and men’s basketball season ticket holder. “Even before tipoff, the anticipation is huge.”
“Hail to the Buff and Blue” gave way to “Hail to the Chief” as President Bill Clinton and his daughter, Chelsea, strolled into the Smith Center to catch the matchup. Seated behind the basket, the Clintons had a front-row view of GW’s 78-75 upset.
“It was just pure, uncontrollable joy,” said Chernak.
President Barack Obama became the second sitting president to attend a GW men’s basketball game at the Smith Center as he watched the Revolutionaries take on Oregon State, coached at the time by his brother-in-law Craig Robinson, in 2009.
GW President Steven Knapp greeted the first family upon arrival at the Smith Center before the game. Knapp presented Obama with a GW basketball game jersey, shorts and a signed basketball. “This is why you come to GW,” Revolutionaries coach Karl Hobbs said after the game.
From 2008 to 2011, the Smith Center underwent a massive renovation project that included a refurbished arena, renovated locker rooms and training and sports medicine facilities, an on-site academic center, new box office, refreshment areas and club levels.
The cozy but raucous atmosphere has persisted with many more memorable moments.
On Nov. 16, 2015, another top-10 opponent paid heed to the Smith Center crowd as the GW men’s basketball toppled No. 6 Virginia 73-68 in front of a sold-out crowd whose noise was evident to those watching on the nationally televised ESPN broadcast.
The women’s basketball team, led by All-American, future WNBA MVP, Finals MVP and 2025 Commencement speaker Jonquel Jones, B.A. '19, HON '25, also enjoyed a remarkable run of success, winning three Atlantic 10 championships in four years (2015, 2016 and 2018) and advancing to the NCAAs during those years while being nearly unbeatable at home.
Even through various facelifts in 50 years, the building still radiates a certain magic to those who have entered in the last five decades.
“Coming down 22nd Street always gives me this great feeling,” Ngongba said. “I drive extra slow—like, ‘Y’all are going to wait, because this is my home, and I’m enjoying it.’ I love passing the Smith Center and seeing all the changes. To me, it shows how much the university cares about what our girls do on that floor.
“And once the game is going, it absolutely feels the same because what always made it special was the people, was the energy in the building. That hasn't changed.”
Highlight Reel
- 1973
GW celebrated the beginning of the construction of the Charles E. Smith Center, named in honor of then-GW trustee Charles E. Smith.
- 1975
The center was dedicated on Dec. 6, 1975. Legendary GW basketball player and Boston Celtics Coach and future Hall of Famer Red Auerbach, B.A. ’40, Ed.D. ’41, HON ’93, is in attendance.
- 1978
The Smith Center hosted its first concert, guitarist and singer Bonnie Raitt, before a sold-out crowd of 5,000.
- 1985
Bob Hope appeared at the Smith Center for an evening of comedy to raise money for the men’s and women’s athletics teams.
- 1990
On Jan. 18, the Department of Athletics and Recreation sponsored a George Carlin concert at the conclusion the men’s basketball game against Rutgers.
- 1990
The Smith Center served as headquarters for journalists covering the Bush-Gorbachev Summit in D.C.
- 2012
The USA Men’s National Basketball team, headlined by superstars LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Anthony Davis and Kobe Bryant, stopped at the Smith Center to practice before heading to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
- 2012
The Smith Center hosted more than 1,000 college students from all 50 states and 82 countries for the fifth-annual Clinton Global Initiative. President Bill Clinton and Jon Stewart hosted panels during the event.
- 2014-18
The Smith Center was home to the Washington Kastles, one of eight tennis franchises that competed in WorldTeam Tennis. Venus Williams was a member of the Kastles.
- 2018
French President Emmanuel Macron engaged in a town hall with students at the Smith Center. Macron spoke to more than 1,000 GW students as part of a town hall event at the Charles E. Smith Center.
- 2020
The Smith Center served as a COVID-19 testing site conducted by Medical Faculty Associates during the pandemic.
Across the decades, here are some more of the Smith Center’s famous visitors and concerts:
